


Winter Name Day

by MCEWEN



Category: Original Work
Genre: Boyd - Freeform, Gen, Kingsfall, Knights of Naren books, Malwen, Sayda, Stig - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-10
Updated: 2018-03-10
Packaged: 2019-03-29 14:39:36
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,305
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13929168
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MCEWEN/pseuds/MCEWEN





	1. Winter Name Day - part 1

Sayda Daijou held her bundled baby girl closely with her cloak wrapped around both of them. Kiril stood next to her in the largest square in Kingsfall. It was time for one of the four Naming Day Festivals that was held each year, and it was their baby girl’s first. She had been born just a week before, a couple of weeks early, but she was healthy. Sayda was glad that she wouldn’t have to wait three months to have her name. The festivities were all set to begin at midnight, though many people were already singing and dancing. Colored lights lined the square, and the falling snow drifted lightly around them.

Sayda had chosen a spot near the main stage, where many of the other parents with babies born in the last quarter had also chosen to wait. The clock at the top of the Lord’s Council Building towered over the square.

“There’s only five minutes left. The Lord should be coming out on the balcony to give his speech soon.” Kiril said, putting his arm around her.

As if on cue, Lord Curran Levander stepped out onto the balcony. The crowd cheered. Sayda was momentarily worried that it would bother her little girl, but the baby remained silent and peaceful underneath Sayda’s cloak. The crowd quieted as the Lord put up his arms in a call for silence.

“Dear people of Kingsfall, we gather again to celebrate our Winter Nameday Festival! As you know, those of you with baby’s to name should line up of to the side of the center stage. Our clerks will take care of recording your baby’s name into the town records. It is a very special day for our youngest citizens. Having their names given and recorded marks their first place in the world. We come together for them as a community, as an extended family to wish them health and happiness throughout their lives. We are also here to celebrate those who were named on Winter Name Day’s in the past, whether this is your first or 200th, it marks the momentous day of your naming. The festivities will start at midnight and continue on into the night. There will be a short break after 2 a.m. so that those who live near the square can get their rest, but make sure you come back during the day for the remaining Name Day Celebrations! We have music and dancers planned as well as some mages from Thril Gandir who have come to entertain us!”

A roar went up through the crowd as the Lord paused to look at the clock. Sayda was excited to hear the music and see the dancers, but the mages scared her. Kiril gave her a quick squeeze as if he had read her mind. Perhaps he was just as scared. She knew the probability of her baby being taken by the mages was statistically low. No one in her or Kiril’s families had ever tested for any magic ability.

The crowd went silent again as the Lord held out his hands. “The time is upon us!” He watched the clock’s large second hand as it passed the nine and neared the ten. Then he started counting down, “Ten! Nine!” The crowd counted with him. “Eight! Seven! Six!” Sayda smiled at Kiril as he joined in as well. “Five! Four! Three! Two!”

The one slurred into an eruption of cheers. Anything else the Lord said after was drowned out by the noise of the revelers. He went back inside the building, and Sayda and Kiril found their place in the line which was forming. There weren’t a lot of people ahead of them, and Kiril started swaying his shoulders to match the lively music that had started on the main stage. They could have waited until morning. There would have likely been no line at all then, but they weren’t the type of parents who would let their baby go nameless a few extra hours.

Soon, they were inside the building and speaking to one of the clerks. She took their names first, then wrote down that they were elven, and asked for their address. Then she asked for the girl’s name.

Sayda looked at Kiril and smiled. They had spoken about it, but they couldn’t call the baby by the name they had chosen until today. Kiril smiled back and answered, “Malwen.”

The clerk wrote the name down and stamped it with the Lord's seal. “Before you go, you need to go to the room across the hall to see the mages.”

Sayda nodded. It was the scary part. Kiril put his arm around her and led her back to the hall. One of the mages stood out in the hall ready to usher them into the next room.

Kiril whispered, “It’ll be fine. Neither of us have magic in our families.”

Sayda tried to nod, but she was petrified. Her sweet darling Malwen had only just received her name, and now she had to be handed over to be tested for magical ability.

One of the mages thrust his hands out, waiting impatiently as she passed over the bundled, sleeping baby. He took her and put her on the table behind him. Another mage cast a spell and his hands glowed. He held them over Malwen’s bundle.

A third mage spoke, “Unwrap her. I need to see her better.” The first mage undid the blanket, waking Malwen in the process. She started to fuss. The second mage’s hands still glowed over her. Malwen’s hands glowed in response.

“Your baby needs to go to Thril Gandir with—”

“No!” Sayda cried. “You can’t take her!”

Kiril was a little more composed and tried to calm her while reasoning with the mages, “There must be some mistake.”

“There’s no mistake. It’s a test of reflection. Any being with any magical power is going to reflect the spell whether they know it or not. She needs to go for training.”

“But she’s just a baby.” Kiril tried to reason. He had little hope of it working. Five years ago, the laws were changed. Before that, babies who tested with magic stayed with their families until they were of school age. The new law sent them as soon as they were discovered. Thril Gandir had dealt with too many who had tested positive only to ‘die’ before their fifth Name Day, or be ‘kidnapped’. Of course, it was the parents hiding them, and that always resulted in rogue mages. In order for control to be kept, proper training needed to be given, as well as proper supervision.

“You are allowed to visit.” The mage said stiffly. “Now please, we have other infants to test. You must leave now.”

Sayda wailed, “No, you can’t take my baby!” She began to rush the mage, but Kiril grabbed her and held her back.

“Sayda, no. We can’t fight their law. You know what they do. Please, Sayda, don’t do this. We’ll save up our coins and go see her when we can.”

She broke down into tears, allowing her husband to steer her out of the room, and out of the building. He was right. Fighting there would have been a horrible mistake that would have likely ended in getting her or both of them imprisoned or worse.

The festive music seemed out of place as they walked away from the square. People were laughing and dancing as Kiril guided her through the crowd. It wasn’t fair, and she vowed to find a way to get her baby back before the mages left for Thril Gandir.

*****

Snow continued to fall throughout the next day. Family members had stopped by in the morning with gifts for Malwen’s Name Day only to find Malwen had been taken by the mages. Sayda was miserable, and Kiril had stayed with her most of the day. Some time after what was normally considered lunchtime, he tried to get Sayda to eat. While they were in the kitchen, a knock came at the door. He left her there, and she took the opportunity to sneak out the kitchen door into the back alley.

She hurried around the garbage and debris that had piled up in the alley and took the street it came out on in the direction of the main city square. She knew that her husband must have discovered her missing by now and that only made her rush more. He could not be involved in any of this. She would put her own life at risk, but not his.

She came to the square and slowed as she reached the door where they had went in last night. It was unlocked. There was a sign on the door to register names. Sayda glanced at the door across the hall from it. The door was open. She crept up to it and peeked inside. One of the mages from the night before sat in a chair reading a book. The others were nowhere to be seen, perhaps they were getting ready for their entertaining magical display that they did every Name Day. Malwen was not there either. Her heart sank for not thinking this through. Perhaps the performance was done, and they had already left with her. However, they must know that there was possibility of having more babies to test today. Maybe they were just in another room.

Sayda slipped past the open door unnoticed and around the sign pointing to the clerk’s door. She’d check every door for her daughter if she had to.

The next two doors were shut and locked. She decided it would be best to move on since she had no idea how to pick a lock and she had no desire to be found trying to learn here. She went to the next door and opened it, immediately smiling at her luck.

“Who are you?” A woman holding a small baby to her breast asked.

“I’m the other wet nurse. I was told to come relieve you so that you can go for supper.”

“They brought lunch to me here.”

“They want you to be able to go out and enjoy the festival too. Now please, everything will be fine. I’ll take over from here.”

The woman hesitated, but eventually stood and handed over the baby. “She’ll need to be burped yet, but she shouldn’t need to be fed again for a couple of hours.”

Sayda nodded as she gently took the baby from the woman. Her baby. She wanted to cry with joy right there, but she knew that wouldn’t look right to the other woman. She put the burp cloth over her shoulder and gently tapped Malwen’s back with her hand. The woman finally left.

Sayda waited a few minutes before slipping out the door herself. She made sure Malwen was wrapped warmly and tucked her under her cloak before stepping out of the building. She had no doubt they’d be guarding this place better on following Name Days, but that was not her concern. Right now, she was only worried about getting Malwen to safety with family.

She couldn’t take her home. She hated how much it would hurt Kiril, but there was no other option. She hoped he would figure it out himself and follow after he was sure he wasn’t being watched.

She went to one of the areas in the city where there were a lot of warehouses, as well as transport wagons and such. Most of the workers there had the day off, but even on Name Day holidays some goods needed to be transported. She finally found a human who was heading north.

“Do you go all the way to Westerfair?”

“Yes, ma’am. Westerfair is my last stop. Do you need something taken there?”

“I need to go there.”

“I can’t do that. You’ll need to hire a passenger wagon.”

“Sir, please, I can’t afford it.”

He seemed to consider it, “Well, you don’t look like a criminal. That’s why I’m not supposed to take you, you know? Too many people want transportation without having to get a ticket with their name on it. Tell you what, I’ll take you for one whole gold piece.”

She frowned, “Oh please, I only have a few silver. I need to get my baby to safety from my abusive family.” It was a lie. She hated telling it, but she couldn’t tell the truth, and it was for the baby’s safety.

The man sighed, “How much do you have then?”

“40 silver, sir. Please, sir, I have family in the north if I can just get to them.”

The man sighed again, “Hop in.”


	2. Winter Name Day - part 2

Sayda Daijou had fallen asleep fairly quickly in the rocking transport wagon. She opened her eyes to find it was still dark. Malwen had woke and was lightly fussing. She was hungry. Sayda already knew her baby had different cries for different things. Those mages couldn’t have possibly taken care of her properly. She loosened the strings on the front of her blouse enough to expose one nipple to the baby’s eager mouth. She looked towards the seat at the front of the wagon. The man who had taken her silver for passage to Westerfair was still up front. He had told her as they set off that his name was Boyd. His friend and workmate, called Stig, slept on a hard cushion just behind the seat. Sayda had hoped he would offer it to her, but he hadn’t so she had to make herself a place to sit on the wooden crates full of goods that they were transporting; fruits and vegetables, as she had been told. They were an express transport. It was winter, so it was less likely that the goods would go bad, but the northern areas often supplemented their stored goods with fresh goods from the south. Boyd had been talking about how busy they had been this winter when Sayda had first dozed off.

The man was silent now, the full moon outlined his silhouette at the front of the wagon. The only sounds were the horses’ hooves and the creaking of the wagon wheels as they turned over the road to the next town. Sayda looked down at her baby, the moonlight giving her just enough light to see her daughter with. Her little Malwen had magical ability, a rare feat in a family with no mages. Neither she nor her husband’s family had any that they knew of. Sayda frowned as she thought that maybe there had been, but since they were taken away to Thril Gandir, they had been forgotten about. Well, they couldn’t take Malwen. Sayda wasn’t allowing that to happen.

She felt the wagon halt and looked towards the front again to see Boyd speaking to someone. Stig had woken as well and was turned around on his cushion to face whomever it was they were talking to. She felt the wagon lurch forward again but then slowed to a stop a few seconds later. Boyd climbed down to the ground, and Stig turned towards her. “We’re just changing the horses. Boyd and I can take turns resting, but the horses can’t. Our next stop won’t be until daylight. We’ll also be stopping for breakfast then.”

Sayda nodded feeling the baby’s mouth slip off her breast. She pulled her blouse back up and put the baby against her shoulder, lightly tapping her back. “Do we have time now to leave the wagon? Also is there an outhouse nearby?”

“It’ll take a while to change the horses. You should have time. There’s an outhouse just the other side of the barn.”

Sayda looked down at Malwen, “Would you mind holding her for a few minutes? I won’t be gone long.”

Stig shifted uncomfortably for a couple of seconds before holding out his hands. “I guess I can hold her for a bit. No sense taking her into that smelly, small building.”

“Thank you, Stig,” She said, handing over the baby. She crawled out and down off the wagon. The night air was chill and she wasn’t dressed very well for it, so she hurried around to the other side of the barn to find the outhouse.

On her walk back, she heard voices shouting out. They didn’t sound like Stig or Boyd. Perhaps, the owner of the barn was upset about something. She walked around the corner, stopping as soon as she saw who it was. One of the mages from the night before, and his adahi were questioning Boyd, and rather loudly. She didn’t get a chance to hear what they were saying before she felt a tug on her sleeve. She looked back around the corner to see Stig, still holding Malwen.

He whispered, “Ma’am, I think they’ve come for her.”

She glanced back at the mage. He was looking straight at her.

She whispered without looking back at Stig and moving her lips as little as possible, “Please, run the other way.” Then she pretended to be holding something and ran away from where Stig was. She didn’t look back but prayed he had listened to her.

“Seize her! That’s the woman who stole the baby!” she heard the mage cry out. She heard a horse whinny back where the others were, but she kept running. She pulled up her skirt with one hand so that she wouldn’t trip as she ran up an incline. Then she stopped, just in time, knocking a few rocks off the cliff to the river below. She looked back to see the adahi, the mage’s protector and controller, on the horse getting closer, though he had slowed to a trot. He must have realized she was trapped. She turned back looking at the drop. If they caught her a mage could read her mind. They could do that. She was sure. What else could they do? Why hadn’t this one done any of that translocation thing she heard they did? He could just move her to him or him to her. Was he reading her mind now? She hoped not, but she knew it would happen if she was caught, and then they’d know who had Malwen.

The adahi was close enough now that he stopped his horse and dismounted. He began walking towards her. She still pretended that she was holding something, though, in reality, it was just bunched fabric from her light cloak. Malwen would be safe if they thought she died. She could pretend to throw something over the cliff, but they would still take her in, and it wouldn’t be for murder. They’d still read her mind, and then they’d know that Malwen still lived. The adahi was too close.

“You can’t have her,” Sayda growled pulling her bundle of bunched fabric closer to her. She glared at the adahi before whipping around and throwing herself off the cliff, all the while acting as if she was cradling a baby close to her.

She stood no chance. The fifty-foot drop was deadly, and although she landed in the water, it was shallow. She died on impact. The adahi and the mage searched the river, only finding Sayda’s body. Boyd was questioned, but having seen the same things the mage had seen, he didn’t know anything, but he could confirm that the woman was Sayda and the baby’s name was Malwen. They discovered he had been lied to and told that she was fleeing abuse, and so they let him go.

They didn’t find Stig, who had found a spot out behind the outhouse that was fairly sheltered from the wind and cold. He whispered lullabies to the baby, holding her close to keep her warm, as he waited for the visitors to leave.


End file.
